Of all modern writers upon Natural History Gesner has done most
to enlarge our knowledge in this science. Aldrovandus is little
more than his commentator, and those of less repute are his mere
copyists; we shall not, therefore, hesitate to follow him in treating
of the Marmots, (_fig. 91._) which are natives of his own country
(Switzerland), and of which he must have been better informed than
those who may have accidentally kept a few in their houses. And as
his remarks perfectly coincide with those observations we had an
opportunity to make, we can have no reason to doubt that what he
further relates is equally to be depended upon. The marmot, when taken
young, is easily tamed; more than most wild animals, and almost as
much as our domestic ones. It is soon learnt to perform feats with a
stick, to dance, and to readily obey the voice of its master. Like
the cat it has an antipathy to dogs; when it has become familiar in
the house, and finds itself protected by its master, it will attack
the largest dog, and fasten on them with his teeth. It is not quite
so large as a hare, but more stout, and has great strength joined to
peculiar agility. He has four strong teeth in the front, with which
he bites terribly; but unless provoked he neither attacks dogs nor
men; but if care is not taken he will gnaw furniture, and even make
holes through wooden partitions. As his thighs are short, and his toes
formed like the bear, he often sits erect, and walks with ease upon
his hind feet; he puts food to his mouth with the fore paws, and eats
like a squirrel. He runs much swifter up hill than on a plain; climbs
trees, and mounts the clefts of rocks, or contiguous walls, with great
facility; so much so that it is said the Savoyards, who are the general
chimney-sweepers of Paris, learned from the marmot their trade. They
eat indiscriminately whatever is given them, whether flesh, bread,
fruit, herbs, roots, pulse, or insects, but of milk and butter they
are particularly fond; and, though less inclined to theft than the cat,
they industriously endeavour to get into a dairy, where they will lap
great quantities of milk, purring all the while like a cat when she
is pleased. Milk, indeed, is the only liquid for which they shew any
inclination, as they seldom drink water, and refuse wine.
There seems to be a combination of the bear and the rat in the form
of the marmot, yet it is not the _arctomys_, or _rat-bear_ of the
ancients, as Perrault, and several others have imagined. Its nose,
lips, and form of the head, are like those of the hare; it has the
hair and claws of the badger, the teeth of the beaver, the whiskers of
the cat, the eyes of the loir, the feet of a bear, with a tufted tail
and short ears. The hair on its back is a reddish brown, more or less
dark, and very harsh, that on the belly is reddish, and more soft. Its
voice resembles that of a young dog when played with or caressed, but
when irritated or frightened it raises a cry, so loud and shrill, that
it hurts the drum of the ear. It is a very clean animal, and retires,
like the cat, upon necessary occasions; but, like the rat, it has a
very strong disagreeable smell, especially in the summer. In autumn it
is loaded with fat, though all parts of the body are never equally
so. The back and reins are loaded with fat which is firm and solid;
therefore the marmot would make very good eating, if it did not retain
a disagreeable smell, which would require the strongest seasoning to
conceal.
This animal, which delights in the regions of frost and snow, and
which is only found on the highest mountains, is, of all others, most
liable to be benumbed with the cold. About the end of September, or
beginning of October, it retires to its hole, and appears no more till
the beginning of April. His retreat is formed with precaution, and
furnished with art. It is rather wider than long, and very deep, so
that it will hold several of them without crowding, or injuring the air
they breathe. Their feet and claws appear as if designed for digging,
and with which they remove the earth with great facility, throwing
it behind them as they proceed. The form of their hole resembles the
letter Y; the two branches having an opening which terminates in
one wherein they reside. As the whole is made on the declivity of a
mountain there is no part on a level but the innermost apartment.
One branch of the Y slopes downward, and in which they void their
excrements, and the other slopes upwards, and serves them as a door
to go in and out. The inner part is warmly lined with moss and hay, of
which they make an ample provision during summer. It is even asserted
that this is a public work, that some cut the finest grass, that others
collect it, and that they take their turns in conveying it to their
hole; upon this occasion, it is added, that one of them lies upon his
back, permits the hay to be heaped upon his belly, keeps his legs
extended, and in this manner the others drag him by the tail to their
common retreat; and this practice is assigned as the reason for the
hair being generally worn away from their backs. But it appears more
probable, that their being constantly employed in digging up the earth
is the cause of that appearance. Be this as it may, certain it is that
they dwell together, and labour in common to make their habitations,
in which they pass three-fourths of their lives; they retire to it in
stormy or rainy weather, and at the approach of danger; they never go
out but in the finest weather, and even then to no great distance: on
these occasions one stands as sentinel upon an elevated place, while
the others are sporting in the fields, or cutting the grass for hay,
and no sooner does he perceive a man, an eagle, a dog, &c. than he
gives the alarm by a kind of whistle, and is himself the last to enter
the cell.
They make no provision for winter, as if they foresaw that such
a precaution would be useless; but when they perceive the first
approaches of the season, in which they will be in a torpid state,
they close up the entrance of their dwelling, and which they effect
with so much solidity and care, that it is much more easy to dig up
the earth in any other part. They are at this time very fat, and some
of them will weigh twenty pounds; in this plight they remain three
months, after which they waste by degrees, and are quite thin by the
end of winter. When discovered in their retreats they are rolled up
like balls, and covered with hay; in this state they may be taken away,
and even killed, without shewing any sense of pain. The fattest are
generally taken for food, and the young ones kept for taming. Like
the dormouse they are revived by a gradual heat, and those kept warm
in a house never become torpid, but are as lively in the winter as
at any other time. We have already observed that the torpid state is
occasioned by the congelation of the blood, and it is remarked in the
Philosophical Transactions, No. 397, that when in this state of torpor,
the circulation of the blood is slow, the secretions languid, and the
blood not being renewed by fresh acquisitions of chyle, is then without
serum. Besides it is uncertain whether they remain for seven or eight
months in a torpid state as most authors pretend. Their burrows are
deep, and they live together in great numbers; they therefore must
retain their heat some time, and may then feed on the grass they have
treasured up. M. Altman, in his Treatise on the animals of Switzerland,
says, that the hunters let the marmots remain three weeks or a month
unmolested in their cells; that they never dig for them in mild
weather, as without this precaution the animals awake, and penetrate
deeper in the earth; but that on opening their cells in hard frosts
they find them in so torpid a state, as to be carried off without
difficulty; it may therefore be concluded that, in all respects, they
resemble the dormice, and that if they are longer in a torpid state, it
is because the winter is longer in the climates which they inhabit.
These animals produce but once a year, and rarely more than three or
four at a time. They grow very fast, their lives do not extend beyond
nine or ten years, and this species is neither numerous nor much
diffused. The Greeks knew it not, or at least have not mentioned it.
Pliny is the first who takes notice of it among the Latins under the
name of _mus Alpinus_, or Alpine rat; and, indeed, though there are
many other species of rats in the Alps, there is none so remarkable as
the marmot, or like it dwells upon the brow of the loftiest mountains;
all the other species fix their abode in the valleys, or at least on
the sides of the lower hills or mountains; besides the marmot never
descends to the lower grounds but seem particularly attached to the
Alpine heights, where it chooses such places as are exposed to the
south or east in preference to the north or west. They are also found
on the Appenine and Pyrenean mountains, and on the highest ones in
Germany.
The Bobak of Poland, to which M. Brisson, and after him Mess. Arnault
of Nobleville, and Salerne, have given the name of Marmot, differs from
that animal in colour, and also in the number of toes, having five on
the fore-feet. From which we may conclude that the _bobak_, or Polish
marmot, the _mouax_, or Canadian marmot, the _cavia_, or marmot of
Bahama, and the _cricet_, or Strasburgh marmot, are different species
from the marmot of the Alps.